We officially began our Spring Break trip to Greece on Sunday, March 21st! I traveled with Steph, Cara, and Korissa to Athens at 2:30 PM via EasyJet, a British airline kind of like Ryanair where there are no assigned seats and is pretty inexpensive. Steph and I checked our baggage, whereas Cara and Korissa packed carry-on bags; I have no idea how they did it, because I even had a hard time fitting all that I wanted to bring in my big rolling luggage!
We got to Athens in the late afternoon and found out what bus we needed to get to the port of Piraeus. It only cost us 3.50 euro for the bus ride so I figured that it wouldn’t be a very long ride. Nooope. It was at least an hour and it was so uncomfortable. We finally made it to the port and discovered that the ferry to get to Santorini departed at 10 PM. We had about two hours to kill. We found a spot to eat some chicken souvlaki pitas, a traditional Greek dish. It was roasted chicken, onions, tomatoes, fries, and sauce in a pita. It was so good – they are all over the place and they’re so cheap (2.50 euro at most places).
We boarded the ship and found a found to sit for the long voyage. It took eight hours to get to Santorini. Yikes. The seats weren’t all that comfortable but we found a way to make it work. I got probably like three hours of sleep.
We got to the Santorini port at 5:45 AM and our hostel was picking us up at 6 (for free). Our hostel was called Anny’s Studios and was so cute. It was unlike the hostels in Barcelona and Munich and felt very “Greeklike”; it was more like a villa than a hostel (and only 10 euro a night – a GREAT price for what we got). We had our own apartment – two beds and a mini kitchen in the room that Steph and I slept in and two beds and a TV in the room that Korissa and Cara shared. The television played movies in English; they had a “hostel movie channel” where they showed Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (partially shot in Santorini!) and the Hangover. Our bathroom was super weird, though. There was no shower curtain and the shower was basically the entire bathroom. There was a drain in the middle of the room and the water went everywhere (all over the toilet and everything) when we showered. The water in Santorini is also undrinkable because it is half salt water.
Oh, and once we landed in Athens, Steph noticed that her iPhone changed time. Apparently Greece is an hour ahead of Rome. We had no idea.
Monday 3/22/10
Once we got to our hostel in Santorini, I immediately took a shower because I felt so nasty. We all went to bed to catch a few more hours of sleep and woke up at 10ish.
We decided to rent ATVs which was the best decision we made! Most of the ATVs were only 15 euro to rent for the whole day, but we got ones with more horsepower because there were two of us on each one. It cost 20 euro for each ATV so we each only had to pay 10 euro. It was a great way to see the island.
Driving the ATVs was so much fun. Steph drove ours first because I was a little nervous; however, once I got to driving it, I had a blast. It wasn’t difficult to drive either. Our first stop was at a restaurant for lunch. Cara and I shared a Greek salad – real Greek salad doesn’t have any lettuce, just tomatoes, feta, cucumbers, onions, and croutons.
Next, we stopped at this place (I think it was a restaurant not opened for the season yet) that had amazing views. Of course we took dozens of pictures. Cara’s self-timer proved to be great the entire week and we got some great shots of the four of us even when we didn’t have anyone to take the photo. We then drove to the Red Beach of Santorini where the sand/rocks are all red. It was beautiful. After that, we went to C. Mavro Vouno, the lighthouse at the tip of the island, and saw some more amazing views. We went to the town of Fira next and got lost. Korissa led us down a one way street the wrong way, and Steph and my ATV stalled while trying to turn it around – talk about bad timing. Actually, it kept stalling all day; we couldn’t let it sit idle without pressing the accelerator and feeding it some gas. It would turn off and whenever we tried to start it again, it would stall. It was so annoying and at times, pretty dangerous.
While in Fira, we went to a restaurant to split a bottle of white wine and appetizers. We had this amazing fried cheese thing and a potato dish with cheese and broccoli. We walked around some more in Fira, checking out the scenery. We were wandering when Korissa disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a box from a bakery and said she had a surprise for us. It was a Greek dessert – baklava. WOW! It is the most amazing thing I’ve ever had in my entire life. It is a pie-like pastry with nuts and flaky crust covered in honey. After that, we got back on our ATVs. We also didn’t know what the rules/etiquette for parking our ATVs so we kept joking about what we would have to do if our ATVs got towed.
Next on our ATV tour of Santorini was Oia at the very north of the island. Oia is famous for its beautiful sunsets. This is where all those white building with the blue roofs are – what I think of when I think of Greece. I felt like I was in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. One thing I noticed about Santorini was the amount of dogs. They were running around loose everywhere.
We walked around for a bit and went into the shops that were actually open – a lot aren’t open for the season yet. We were planning on going back near our hostel at Perissa Beach for dinner but we decided to eat in Oia instead. After we finished eating, it was really dark and pretty cold. We were all dreading the hour ATV drive back to Perissa. Our waiter told us that it was going to be freezing going down the mountain; it definitely was cold on the ride but not as bad as I was expecting. I think that I now compare everything to how cold it was in Munich. Hopefully that’s the greatest extreme that I’ll ever incur. I was nervous to drive in the dark on the winding cliff road so Steph drove and Korissa drove the other ATV.
This is where it gets interesting. We got lost on our way back to Perissa. It was 9:30 at night, and we ended up basically in the middle of the island. We were trying to follow signs but they were kind of confusing. On one sign, someone spray painted over an arrow and drew a new one pointing in a different direction. I went like we were being led into a scene from a horror movie. We were in a deserted and unlit area – all of us were so scared. We ended up driving along the beach which freaked me out even more. The vastness of the dark ocean made me think that someone was going to jump out at us. I will never forget the look of absolute fear on Cara’s face when she turned around to look behind us. We reached a dead end and quickly turned around and went back the other way. None of us have ever been so grateful to see the sign for our hostel and we knew where we were. We returned our ATVs and remained in our “villa” the rest of the night.
Tuesday 3/23/10
On Tuesday we decided to take a boat to Volcano Island just off the coast of Santorini. We had to hop on a bus at Perissa and take it to the Old Port. There, we bought out tickets to the volcano, as well as tickets for the ferry from Santorini to Mykonos for the next day. The boat to the island departed at 11 AM. In order to get to the dock, we had to walk down hundreds of stairs; it took a lot longer than I expected. It took 20+ minutes to walk down all of the stairs.
It was a gorgeous day out and a lot warmer than the day before! There were a lot of American students on the boat and most people were lying out in their bathing suits. Cara was the only one out of the four of us that wore her suit, but she also wore boots with a small heel which she ended regretting during our hike up the volcano.
The ride to the volcano took about 25 to 35 minutes. We docked and the “captain” told us that we had until 12:40 to explore, which was a little more than an hour. It was so difficult trekking up the rocks of the volcano – none of us were in shape enough to handle the steep hills. We tried to make it to the tops but we didn't have the physical capabilities to do so. It was so funny when we all offered up justifications for not going up all the way: 1) The view is probably just as good from here 2) If we go all the way up, we’ll never make it back down in time 3) We’ve done enough walking today, etc, etc. The girls that went all the way up said that the view was the same so no regrets.
We were one of the first ones back on the boat, and we were able to lie out on the bow. We were then taken to the Hot Springs. Cara planned on going in but the hostel worker told us that you had to swim through really cold water to get to it – and the Hot Springs weren’t even that hot. Apparently they were only 5 to 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the water (I’m not sure if that’s in Celsius or Fahrenheit). The Hot Springs are trying to heat up the entire sea but it’s just not possible. Most of the Americans jumped in but none of us did. Cara was seriously considering it at one point but she didn’t have a towel so she would have been freezing after coming out.
We only stayed docked near the Hot Springs for 30 minutes. The boat ride back to Santorini was so relaxing. We all lay out and basked in the sun, hoping to get some color.
Next was the most HILARIOUS part of the day, and probably the funniest of the entire week. There are three options for getting up the zig zag path up the hill: the sky gondolas, walking (I would never pick this one – the walk down was even tiring), and DONKEYS. Of course we had to ride the donkeys – it was stereotypical of Greece. Everyone on our boat chose the donkeys because the gondolas were out. We all had the impression that we would sit on the donkeys and a little old Greek man would lead it up. NOPE. I got on the donkey and it just started trekking up the hill. It was literally one of the scariest/funniest experiences of my life. My donkey LOVED getting close to the edge. My feet were basically dangling over – being deathly afraid of heights did not help at all.
My donkey was one of the ones leading the pack with Cara not far behind. I laughed so hard when she screamed up to me, “THEY GAVE ME THE CRAZY ONE!”. Hers was so large, literally borderline horse. I couldn’t stop gigging the entire trip up. I heard one of the other American girls say, “This is the first time I’ve ever paid for a death wish” – SO funny. Steph and Korissa ended up catching up to us because their donkeys were pretty much trotting up the stairs at full speed. Steph’s donkey was riling mine up. Mine would also randomly stop (usually near the edge) and I would have to kick it to get it going again. Poor donkeys – I wonder if they get tired of going up the steps. It was an experience that I’ll definitely never forget.
Click play below to see a video of our donkey ride!!
We hung out at the Old Port for a while, popping in and out of shops, before deciding to go back to our hostel. It was six o’clock by the time we got back, and we were all exhausted and desperately needed a nap. So Cara, Korissa, and I slept while Steph showered and did some Italian homework. It was a great nap – we woke up at 9 PM. Cara and Korissa refused to get out of bed so Steph and I went to dinner together at one of two restaurants actually open near our hostel. We packed up our stuff to leave for Mykonos and went to bed!
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